I was in Niu Valley this morning, where a 3 1/2-foot boulder tumbled down a Niu Valley hillside just after 7 a.m., scraped the side of a home, smashed through the wood fence and concrete wall, and landed in the sidewalk. No one — very fortunately — was injured.
It was particularly interesting to read the comments on a breaking news post, which originally said the boulder was “car-size,” then put it at 4.5-feet by 5-feet.
Although the posts were written before I was put on the story, I’m guessing those measurements came from preliminary reports or chatter over the police scanner.
If you have ever doubted that there is a public fascination about the “boulder beat,” read the comments on the story, now up to 18 comments.
It’s basically the conflict between what my friend Jess calls “The Ross Mentality” and what I feel SHOULD be the Quarterlifer’s way of thinking about clothes — buy quality, even though it’s more expensive, because now you have a paycheck.
I’m leaving for Chicago tonight, so on Saturday I had two friends, one from Staten Island, one from Orange County, come over and assess my wardrobe. We found *barely* five days worth of clothing and shoes they said were acceptable for a journalism conference in Chi-town in the middle of summer. Which made me worried.
A brief history: Throughout high school, the most expensive article of clothing in my closet was a pair of jeans which cost $25. When I was 16, I discovered Ross. It wasn’t necessarily because I couldn’t afford to shop someplace else that I bought most of my wardrobe there, but because the temptation of being able to get three shirts, a pair of jeans, a bag and shoes for under $50 was just too alluring. And when you’re in high school, it’s all about quantity — heaven forbid you wear the same article of clothing twice in one week.
College was a hazy time in the maturing of my fashion sense. I was introduced to sweaters, coats and scarves. But when it’s 20 below zero, as it sometimes got in Williamstown … let’s just say that not freezing to death was on my mind much more than whether my orange scarf clashed with my striped sweater.
At Williams, dressing up was strictly for weekend evenings. Anything else, and people stared at you, wondering why on earth you were wearing more than sweatpants and a baggy sweater to English class. I mean, who the heck were you trying to impress anyway?
Now, as a young professional working in Hawaii, my quest to build good personal style is, I feel, caught between a number of factors. Climate is one thing. My job is another. I would love to look fabulous every day, but just can’t figure out how to go stomping through piles of manure at a horse stable in 96-degree weather looking totally chic.
I love the “Looks for the Office” that Stacy and Clinton put together so effortlessly on TLC’s “What Not To Wear,” but since my “office” on any given day can be (a) the newsroom, (b) Starbucks, (c) in front of a grocery store talking to people who don’t want to talk to me, (d) the beach, or (e) anywhere else on Oahu, I’m in a bit of a bind.
It seems the only place you’ll ever see people dressed up in Hawaii is at the W or the Pearl clubs on Friday or Saturday night. Fashion in this laid-back, tropical, beachy place located thousands of miles from style meccas like New York or Paris just isn’t a priority for most people.
I’m working really hard to shake “The Ross Mentality.” I still have threshold amounts above which I will not pay for a shirt, tank-top or pants. I roam the sale racks at Banana Republic, but cringe when I see the price tags on some of the regular priced items.
After all, I don’t have oodles of money to spend of clothes, and I’d like to think that there’s more to me than what label I’m wearing. But, I’ve also realized the importance of first impressions and of looking professional in your twenties — and not like you’re still in high school.
This may mean a closet purge and/or some serious shopping. You know, the kind that makes your head hurt. Or maybe I just need a device I can strap to my arm that will deliver an electric shock every time I want to purchase something $12.99 and polyester.
I’m the kind of person who always has milk in her fridge that is several weeks past its expiration date.
It’s hard to cook for one person and it’s even harder to shop for one person. I’ll go to Don Quijote resolved to eat healthier and stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables that grow green and fuzzy two weeks later when I don’t eat them.
Finishing everything on your plate used to be a moral issue, but it’s quickly becoming an economic issue for many of us in Hawaii, where food is becoming more and more expensive. How much does a quart of milk cost now? $3.00?
According to one government study, Americans waste more than one quarter of food available for consumption. That amounts to about a pound of food per person each day. The New York Times also quoted an EPA study in March which estimated that Americans waste roughly 30 million tons of food each year — about 12 percent of the total waste stream.
I know I ought to eat at home more and eat out less, because it creates additional dilemmas. I always end up with several take-out containers I can’t finish because the restaurant portion was three sizes too large in the first place. Leftovers often go bad — the food is never as good as it was in the restaurant.
(Looking at the expanding American waistline, it’s not like we NEED portions that are three times too big!)
So, what if we could train ourselves to waste less food?
[E]liminating food waste won’t solve the problems of world hunger and greenhouse-gas pollution. But it could make a dent in this country and wouldn’t require a huge amount of effort or money. The Department of Agriculture estimated that recovering just 5 percent of the food that is wasted could feed four million people a day; recovering 25 percent would feed 20 million people.
So, for our pocketbooks, and for those suffering because of food shortages in other regions of the world, here are some tips from The Guardian on how to “waste not” …
- Ignore two-for-one deals, which are often offered on items nearing their expiration date.
- Shop daily for perishables like vegetables, fish and meat to avoid these items going bad.
- Buy non-perishables in bulk. Hello Costco and Sam’s Club!
- Become savvy at storing food and making it last longer. Visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com for more tips.
- Write out a meal plan for the week.
- Buy quality not quantity — you’re more likely to finish that quality loaf of bread before it goes bad than the cheap supermarket version.
- Rediscover packed lunches.
- Don’t be afraid of an empty fridge. Says the expert, having a full fridge is “an aspirational thing.”
For three Saturdays in August, a 6.9-mile route in New York City stretching from lower Manhattan to the Upper East Side will be closed to all cars, trucks and buses from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday.
The three no-car zone Saturdays, called Summer Streets, are just an experiment, Bloomberg said, according to an article in the NYT today.
Fitness, dance and yoga classes will be held along the route on those days.
What’s the point of this crazy exercise? Well, exercise, for one.
“It’s a new way to use a street, using it more as a park than as a thoroughfare,” said Paul Steely White, the executive director of Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy group promoting walking, bicycling and mass transit that worked with the city to develop the car-free zone.
“Everyone around the world knows about Park Avenue as one of New York City’s most storied thoroughfares, and to turn that over to pedestrians and cyclists, even though it’s just for three consecutive Saturdays, I think that sends a very powerful message that the tide is turning so that bicyclists and pedestrians are on at least an equal footing with drivers.”
That got me thinking about whether the same initiative could be accomplished here in Hawaii. Whenever there are parades in Waikiki, it causes traffic commotion in my neighborhood. But, quite honestly, it’s kind of nice sometimes to walk up and down Kalakaua Avenue when all the cars and trolleys have been forced to go someplace else and the street is decked out with food booths and music stages.
I’ve become increasingly disturbed by how filled with cars Oahu roads have become, and how clingy drivers are to their vehicles. When did we reach the point where we can’t live without our cars?
A friend from the Mainland visited recently and remarked with surprise that we seemed to encounter traffic regardless of the time of day, regardless of where we were in Honolulu. Of all the things she had imagined about Hawaii, sitting on a hot highway in bumper-to-bumper traffic wasn’t one of them.
Let’s think about this. A 6.9-mile stretch of streets in Honolulu would go, for example, from Aloha Tower Marketplace, along Ala Moana Boulevard, down Kalakaua Avenue, up Diamond Head Avenue and almost reach Kahala Mall. Would it ever work?
I can hear the horns honking in Paradise now … Ah, reminds me of New York!
Stolen from the Advertiser breaking news roll: Results from the fourth annual GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test show Hawaii drivers are in 45th place in basic driving knowledge.
Kansas had the most knowledgeable drivers in the nation, with an average score of 84 percent, followed by Wyoming and Nebraska. The average score for Hawaii drivers was 76.3 percent.
Is this just because Hawaii drivers don’t know what to do with their fog lights? Or are there other, more fundamental problems?
Other key findings:
• If taken today, 16.4 percent of drivers on the road – amounting to roughly 33 million licensed Americans – would not pass a written drivers test exam
• The national average score was 78.1 percent
• Kansas drivers ranked first in the nation (average score of 84.0 percent; New Jersey drivers ranked last (average score of 69.9 percent)
• With Age Comes Wisdom: The older the driver, the higher the test score
• While average test scores between the genders were similar, women were more likely to fail the test than men (20 percent versus 13 percent)
As Father’s Day is coming up this weekend, I have my dad to thank for teaching me how to drive. He was very patient and spent many long hours circling the parking lot at Manoa Elementary with me. He even accompanied me to take the driver’s test not once, not twice, but THREE times.
So, ultimately, I like to think that my driving style is more like that of a Mainland haole guy (which Dad is) than an Asian woman (which I am — well, half anyway). Um, right.
Want to see how you would score? Test your basic driving knowledge here.
I was in Niu Valley this morning, where a 3 1/2-foot boulder tumbled down a Niu Valley hillside just after 7 a.m., scraped the side of a home, smashed through the wood fence and concrete wall, and landed in the sidewalk. No one — very fortunately — was injured.
College was a hazy time in the maturing of my fashion sense. I was introduced to sweaters, coats and scarves. But when it’s 20 below zero, as it sometimes got in Williamstown … let’s just say that not freezing to death was on my mind much more than whether my orange scarf clashed with my striped sweater.
I’m the kind of person who always has milk in her fridge that is several weeks past its expiration date.
